Geotechnics: The Unintended Blockchain of Our Communities
Forensic Investigations Get to the Facts: East Side IHNC Flood Wall Breaches during Hurricane Katrina
East Side IHNC Flood Wall Breaches during Hurricane Katrina. I served as a geotechnical expert for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) supporting the defense of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)...
Praise for the Panama Canal
Bridge Project Should Make Engineers Proud
Focus on Business and Communications
Matthew McCarty, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE, the senior project manager of the marine division of the McLaren Engineering Group, discusses some of the nontechnical aspects of management: client relations, business...
Hands-On, Real-World Education
At George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, one civil engineering professor is flipping his classroom and incorporating video and social media to deliver course content....
One Book, Four Subjects
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, instructors in the civil and environmental engineering department are using one book to teach four branches of civil engineering. It’s a “novel” approach...
As I See It: Rethinking the One-Third Increase in Bearing Capacity for Seismic and Wind
Low-Gravity Experiments: Shear Testing Takes a Nose Dive
A major challenge to making celestial soil mechanics viable is to re-engineer the profession's toolkit to provide geotechnical solutions without the luxury of ex-situ and in-situ testing as we know them...
A Sunken Submarine Full of Mercury: Safe, Controlled Construction of a Counter Fill for Seabed Slope Stabilization at about 155 to 177 Meters
On December 5, 1944, with World War II still raging and peace in Europe still six months away, the German submarine U-864 set out on her maiden voyage on a secret mission to deliver strategic war supplies...
Eyes in the Heavens: Satellite Technologies in Remote Site Monitoring
Installation and maintenance of instrumentation to monitor geotechnical projects in remote locales is usually more challenging than sites in urban areas for both technical and logistical reasons. In most...
Remote Mapping in Alaska's Wilderness: Accessing Resources in the Last Frontier
The rich, natural resources of Alaska have long been the focus of many pioneers seeking fortune in the Last Frontier. As captured in historical images of dedicated Klondike Gold Rush miners seeking their...
What's New in Geo? The Future of Numerical Geo-Modeling: Is 3D Here to Stay?!
Application of soil mechanics in engineering practice has undergone remarkable changes over the past 50 years as a result of developments in computer technology. Each improvement in computing capability,...
A Preliminary Case for the Existence of Hurricane Alleys in the Gulf of Mexico
A review of hurricance intensity in the Gulf of Mexico suggests there are two alleys where hurricanes are roughly 20% more intense than elsewhere. This paper develops a physical basis for the alleys using...
When Old Meets New: Railway Geotechnics and Remote Sensing
Railroad track, like any other built structure, relies on a foundation of geomaterials for support. In its most basal form, the railway track is quite simple: steel load-bearing members (rails) supported...
Railway Geotechnical Asset Management in Great Britain: How Modern-Day Techniques Help Monitor Railway Infrastructure Dating to the 1800s
This article discusses asset management, risk management, and earthworks failures as experienced by Network Rail (NR), the owner, operator, and asset manager of the majority of the rail network of Great...
All About ISSMGE: An Interview with Leaders of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
This article summarizes key discussions from an interview of a select group of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) leaders, conducted by a small group of students...
The Wait Is Over…DIGGS Is Here!
The roll-out of Data Interchange for Geotechnical and GeoEnvironmental Specialists (DIGGS) has started, and the Ohio DOT (ODOT) has already announced that it will be required beginning January 2018. This...
Restoring Steinbeck's Carmel River: The Removal of San Clemente Dam
If you've read John Steinbeck's 1945 classic "Cannery Row," then you're already familiar with the Carmel River, which he described as "…a lovely little river. It isn't very long, but in its course it has...
The Case for Tolerable Risk Guidelines to Manage Flood Risk: Nature Bats Last
Since ancient times, people have used levees to reduce flood risk. We have built over 30,000 miles of levees in the U.S., largely on the belief that levies will unconditionally protect people who live...
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